Back on the Road to Serfdom

The Resurgence of Statism

Edited by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

Quick Overview

This shift toward statism “will not end happily,” declares bestselling author Thomas E. Woods. In Back on the Road to Serfdom, Woods brings together ten top scholars to examine why the size and scope of government has exploded, and to reveal the devastating consequences of succumbing to the statist temptation.

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Details

Leviathan Is Back

The threat of statism has reemerged in force. The federal government has seized on the economic crisis to radically expand its power—through bailouts, “stimulus” packages, a trillion-dollar health care plan, “jobs bills,” massive expansions of the money supply, and much more. But such interventionism did not suddenly materialize with the recent collapse. The dangerous trends of government growth, debt increases, encroachments on individual liberty, and attacks on the free market began years earlier and continued no matter which political party was in power.

This shift toward statism “will not end happily,” declares bestselling author Thomas E. Woods. In Back on the Road to Serfdom, Woods brings together ten top scholars to examine why the size and scope of government has exploded, and to reveal the devastating consequences of succumbing to the statist temptation.

Spanning history, economics, politics, religion, and the arts, Back on the Road to Serfdom shows:
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How government interventionism endangers America’s prosperity and the vital culture of entrepreneurship

The roots of statism: from the seminal conflict between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton to the vast expansion of federal power in the twentieth century

Why the standard explanation for the recent economic crisis is so terribly wrong—and why the government’s frenzied responses to the downturn only exacerbate the problems

Why the European welfare state is not a model to aspire to but a disaster to be avoided

How an intrusive state not only harms the economy but also imperils individual liberty and undermines the role of civil society

The fatal flaws in the now-common arguments against free markets and free trade

How big business is helping government pave the road to serfdom

Why the Judeo-Christian tradition does not demand support for the welfare state, but in fact values the free market

How the arrogance of government power extends even to the cultural realm—and how central planning is just as inefficient and destructive there

It’s been more than sixty-five years since F. A. Hayek published his seminal work The Road to Serfdom. Now this impeccably timed book provides another desperately needed warning about—and corrective to—the dangers of statism.

Additional Information

Format

Cloth

Pages

368

Publisher

ISI Books

What They're Saying...

“Reading the essays in this book . . . Is like entering an alternate universe. Our minds are so used to accepting the distortions that the reality looks like heresy. . . . The ideas in Back on the Road to Serfdom have the power to bring America back to something like what the Founders envisioned. . . . This slender, but highly informative volume . . . Can work wonders in changing the way we look at government and economic growth.”—The New American